France: Political fallout from troop deployment to Afghanistan

by wsws (reposted)

Sat, Apr 5, 2008 9:24AM

Saturday, April 5, 2008 :President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to send more troops to bolster the US-led occupation of Afghanistan has become the subject of heated debate in French political circles. The main subject of contention is not support for the occupation, which is unanimous inside the French ruling class. Rather, the French bourgeoisie worries that, coming on the heels of the government’s defeat in the March 16 local elections, its open contempt for democratic procedures in sealing a closer alliance with crisis-ridden Anglo-American militarism risks further destabilising internal French politics.

Sarkozy first announced the deployment to eastern Afghanistan of another battalion of ground troops—roughly 700-1,000 men, according to various press reports—in a March 26 speech to the British Parliament, during his state visit to the UK. The initial announcement was confirmed in his April 3 speech at the NATO summit in Bucharest, at which Sarkozy added that France would plan on rejoining NATO’s military command structure in 2009, which France left in 1966 at the initiative of then-President Charles de Gaulle.

The deployment to Afghanistan, which would place the new troops near already deployed French forces in the Afghan capital, Kabul, would release US Marines to reinforce Canadian troops in the most violent southern provinces, Kandahar and Helmand. France currently has 1,600 troops, 280 military trainers and six fighter jets in Afghanistan. It also has three ships in the US-led fleet in the Indian Ocean, south of Afghanistan.

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For more information: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/...

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